Gears of War: Judgmenthttps://www.gameinformer.com/games/gears_of_war_judgment/default.aspxen-USTelligent Community 1.5.134.12297 (Build: 5.5.134.12297)File: Gears of War: Judgment - Lost Relics Map Pack DLChttps://www.gameinformer.com/games/gears_of_war_judgment/m/gears_of_war_judgment_media/3016413.aspxTue, 18 Jun 2013 15:39:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:3016413Mike FutterFour new maps, one new mode, lots more carnage.File: Gears of War: Judgment - Lost Relics Map Pack DLChttps://www.gameinformer.com/games/gears_of_war_judgment/m/gears_of_war_judgment_media/3016412.aspxTue, 18 Jun 2013 15:39:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:3016412Mike FutterFour new maps, one new mode, lots more carnage.File: Gears of War: Judgment - Lost Relics Map Pack DLChttps://www.gameinformer.com/games/gears_of_war_judgment/m/gears_of_war_judgment_media/3016411.aspxTue, 18 Jun 2013 15:39:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:3016411Mike FutterFour new maps, one new mode, lots more carnage.File: Gears of War: Judgment - Lost Relics Map Pack DLChttps://www.gameinformer.com/games/gears_of_war_judgment/m/gears_of_war_judgment_media/3016410.aspxTue, 18 Jun 2013 15:39:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:3016410Mike FutterFour new maps, one new mode, lots more carnage.File: Gears of War: Judgment - Lost Relics Map Pack DLChttps://www.gameinformer.com/games/gears_of_war_judgment/m/gears_of_war_judgment_media/3016409.aspxTue, 18 Jun 2013 15:39:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:3016409Mike FutterFour new maps, one new mode, lots more carnage.File: Gears of War: Judgment - Lost Relics Map Pack DLChttps://www.gameinformer.com/games/gears_of_war_judgment/m/gears_of_war_judgment_media/3016407.aspxTue, 18 Jun 2013 15:39:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:3016407Mike FutterFour new maps, one new mode, lots more carnage.File: Gears of War: Judgment - Lost Relics Map Pack DLChttps://www.gameinformer.com/games/gears_of_war_judgment/m/gears_of_war_judgment_media/3016406.aspxTue, 18 Jun 2013 15:39:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:3016406Mike FutterFour new maps, one new mode, lots more carnage.File: Gears of War: Judgment - Lost Relics Map Pack DLChttps://www.gameinformer.com/games/gears_of_war_judgment/m/gears_of_war_judgment_media/3016405.aspxTue, 18 Jun 2013 15:39:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:3016405Mike FutterFour new maps, one new mode, lots more carnage.Blog Post: A Mixed Baghttps://www.gameinformer.com/games/gears_of_war_judgment/b/user_reviews/archive/2013/05/31/a-mixed-bag.aspxSat, 01 Jun 2013 02:30:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:2918619BRAV0 F1VE<p dir="ltr"><span><span style="white-space:pre;"> </span>Whenever a successful franchise takes their project in a new direction, they risk alienating their longtime fans. &nbsp;Epic and People Can Fly made a series of puzzling changes; the removal of the beloved Horde mode, the lack of set piece moments, and the new declassified system all received mixed reception at best. &nbsp;Hate forums began popping up around the internet and many gearheads quickly switched back to Gears of War 3. &nbsp;Sometimes, fans are a little too critical of their favorite games. &nbsp;Unfortunately, Judgment is a mixed bag; for every step it takes to move in the right direction, it also makes its fair share of questionable choices.<span> </span></span></p> <p><img src="http://cdn.dualshockers.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/gears_judgement.jpg" alt="" /></p> <p><span style="white-space:pre;"></span><span style="white-space:pre;"> </span>In many ways Judgment is a departure from previous Gears of War titles, and it starts with the campaign. &nbsp;Gears of War 3 wrapped up the story conclusively, so the only logical choice was to create a prequel. &nbsp;Series mainstays like Marcus and Dom are absent this time around, placing the focus on the cynical leader of Kilo squad, Baird. &nbsp;Love him or hate him, Baird just doesn&rsquo;t have what it takes to take on a lead role. &nbsp;Characters feel even blander than before, Baird lacks his signature charisma, and Cole just re-treads familiar ground. &nbsp;The two newcomers, Sofia and Paduk, are interesting, but not fleshed out enough. &nbsp;Gears of War just doesn&rsquo;t feel the same without Marcus and crew. Story has never been a strong point in the Gears of War series, but Judgement is even more forgettable despite some of the changes. &nbsp;The most notable being the new Declassified system, which throws in difficulty altering modifiers and rates performance based on stars. &nbsp;This makes Judgment more replayable, but I was disappointed that I was unable to jump into specific classified missions and replay them.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span><span> </span></span></p> <p dir="ltr"><span><span></span><span style="white-space:pre;"> </span>Probably the worst thing going against Judgment&rsquo;s campaign is that it just isn&rsquo;t memorable like it&rsquo;s previous entries where. &nbsp;Standout set piece moments like fighting a brumak are gone and the story really has no importance in the grand scheme things. &nbsp;After the credits roll, an epilogue chapter titled Aftermath becomes unlocked, taking place in during the events of Gears 3. &nbsp;Aftermath follows the format of previous Gears of War games, and while it has its moments, it just feels like a leftover Gears of War 3 mission shoehorned into this recent entry. &nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style="white-space:pre;"> </span>While Judgment&rsquo;s campaign falls flat on many aspects, it will come secondary to its multiplayer experience. &nbsp;Unfortunately, Judgment makes a few missteps with multiplayer as well. &nbsp;Judgment flat out has less content than previous Gears of War games or other shooters in general. &nbsp;Not only are fan favorites like Horde and Beast gone, but other classic modes like Wingman and Warzone have been removed as well. &nbsp;Only the most basic game modes like Team Deathmatch and Domination remain, and while these are enjoyable, these game modes don&rsquo;t offer the unique experiences that like Wingman and Execution did. &nbsp;Even worse, only four maps were available at launch, so expect to play in the same environments over and over. &nbsp;</p> <p><img src="http://www.ubergizmo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/gears-of-war-judgment-call-to-arms-boneyard_actionshot-640x359.jpg" alt="" /></p> <p><span style="white-space:pre;"></span><span style="white-space:pre;"> </span>Multiplayer isn&rsquo;t a total disappointment however, and is redeemed by the spectacular Overrun mode. &nbsp;Overrun takes the best concepts of Horde and Beast to make it one of the the most enjoyable and addictive multiplayer experiences I&rsquo;ve played in years. &nbsp;Overrun pits the COG versus the Locusts, but unlike Horde and Beast, Overrun is a competitive experience, rather than cooperative. &nbsp;Players controlling &nbsp;the COG are tasked with defending a generator, and can choose to play as one of the four classes; the engineer, the soldier, the scout, and the medic. &nbsp;Engineers can repair barriers and set up turrets, soldiers supply allies with ammo, scout can pick off enemies from perches, and medics have the crucial task of healing their teammates. &nbsp;Teamwork is vital to success, just as much as it was in Horde, and a well organised team is victorious more often than not. &nbsp;From my experience, the engineer is the most powerful class, but no class seems too over or underpowered. &nbsp;</p> <p><span style="white-space:pre;"> </span>Though the COG are fun to play as, their efforts are often thwarted by the locust horde. &nbsp;The locust are empowering, but more importantly, they are a hell of a good time to play as. &nbsp;Controlling the locust resembles Gears of War 3&rsquo;s beast mode, but playing against real people in Overrun is a much more challenging and enjoyable experience.</p> <p dir="ltr"><img src="http://media.edge-online.com/wp-content/uploads/edgeonline/2013/03/GearsOfWarJudgment2.jpg" alt="" /></p> <p dir="ltr"><span><span style="white-space:pre;"></span><span style="white-space:pre;"> </span>Unfortunately, the fun starts and stops with Overrun. &nbsp;Another addition to Judgment is the new Survival mode which is pretty much Overrun with bots. &nbsp;Epic decided to included this mode to bring back former fans of Horde, but Survival really adds nothing new to the formula, feels uninspired, and just plain boring. &nbsp;It really pains me that Epic would just do away with Horde mode, even if Overrun is new, fresh and fun, it lacks really the pure entertainment value and replayability that Horde offered.</span></p> <p><span style="white-space:pre;"> </span>I really tried to like Judgment. &nbsp;I really did. &nbsp;But Judgment just tampers with the franchise to much for longtime fans to enjoy it. &nbsp;Loadouts have two weapons instead of four, hit detection with some weapons like the Gnasher feels just wonky, and the removal of popular modes like Horde alienates Gears of War&rsquo;s biggest fans. &nbsp;In hindsight, I think Judgment would be a substantially better game if Epic just stuck to it&rsquo;s guns. &nbsp;The Gears of War franchise never made drastic change to the series, yet still produced quality games. &nbsp;While I appreciate the company&rsquo;s willingness to experiment, I found Judgment to be a less enjoyable game because of it. &nbsp;I hope Epic can capture the magic once again, but at this point it is hard not to feel like the series is stagnating.</p> <p>7/10&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>Blog Post: Gears of War: Judgment Review - A Stalling Chainsawhttps://www.gameinformer.com/games/gears_of_war_judgment/b/user_reviews/archive/2013/05/11/gears-of-war-judgment-review-a-stalling-chainsaw.aspxSat, 11 May 2013 16:03:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:2842919Hannibal<p style="text-align:center;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/rO6MoWb.jpg" style="max-height:500px;max-width:500px;" alt="" /></p> <p style="text-align:left;">The Gears of War series seems to be in an awkward situation at the moment. The ending of Gears 3 (which I won&#39;t go into, as to avoid spoilers) hasn&#39;t left much on the table for a sequel, but the series simply makes too much money to just fade away. One of the more obvious directions for the series, is to journey off into the prequel territory. If Gears of War: Judgment serves as any indication as to the level of quality we can expect from future iterations...well the series might find itself stagnating.</p> <p style="text-align:left;">As is tradition for the Gears series, the visuals are incredible and the cover mechanics remain the best on the third-person shooter front. The color palette has slowly evolved over the course of the series, with Gears 3 implementing some brighter, more neon themed coloration. Judgment takes it a step further and every area is covered in a somewhat heavier version of the series&#39; aesthetic with deeper blues and browns.&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align:left;">The sound design hasn&#39;t changed much, which isn&#39;t really a bad thing. Guns sound and feel powerful, and there&#39;s a nice balance between character voices and music. I didn&#39;t find myself tinkering with the sound options (a tradition of mine) once.&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align:left;">What has become the most interesting part of Gears of War since the second installment is the much praised - and cloned - Horde mode. Horde mode for those of you who haven&#39;t played the Gears series, is basically a multiplayer game type, that pits four players against fifty waves of increasingly powerful enemies.</p> <p style="text-align:center;"><img style="max-height:450px;max-width:450px;" border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/UO9GRDy.jpg" alt="" /></p> <p style="text-align:left;">In what has proven to be a very puzzling decision, People Can Fly chose to leave the mode out. In its place is the new Overrun mode, which is essentially a mash up of Horde and Beast Mode (Beast Mode was introduced in Gears 3, and had players play as a diverse set of Locust (Locust are the big baddies in the series)). Overrun is fantastic, and will do a great job of bringing fans of Horde, as well as competitive multiplayer junkies together. That being said, I think including a dedicated Horde mode would have been a nice addition, as there are still many fans of the series (myself included) that miss the purely cooperative experience that it brought to the table.</p> <p style="text-align:left;">The single player campaign stands out for all the wrong reasons. The story itself (Baird being put on trial for reasons that are slowly revealed over the course of the campaign through flashbacks) is pretty good, and might be the most interesting in the series...until the last quarter. Nothing (I&#39;d write that in all caps if that type of thing weren&#39;t so unpleasant on the eyes) notable, or game-changing happens that will help to carry the series forward as far as story goes. The four main characters are shuttled from location to location, and I constantly found myself forgetting what the threat was.</p> <p style="text-align:left;">I will say that the characters are likable, and fun. There&#39;s plenty of great banter between the foursome, and Baird proves to be a reliable leading man in the absence of series-lead, Marcus Fenix.</p> <p style="text-align:center;"><img style="max-height:450px;max-width:450px;" border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/M4nfYCf.jpg" alt="" /></p> <p style="text-align:left;">Judgment would have been a great game to introduce something that could have a lasting effect on the series. Maybe a villain could have been introduced that could have come back to haunt the citizens of Sera after the events of 3. Maybe there could have been some event or Easter egg that could have pointed out where the series is heading. Instead, we&#39;re left with a filler type story, and as far as villains go, Judgment&#39;s Karn is by far the weakest and most yawn-worthy addition to the series, and I can&#39;t stress how much that is saying.</p> <p style="text-align:left;">Not only did the plot come off as forgettable and pointless, but the structure itself is implemented in such a way, that immersion (which for me has been a series strong suit) is broken up, and the game is reduced to a more arcade-like setup. Judgment discards the cinematic events that played out during each game, for a more competitive numbers-based system. Because there&#39;s only one boss in the game (Karn), or special event for that matter, it&#39;s mostly just a bunch of mindless shooting. There are no Brumak Rodeos, fights with the terrifying Corpsers, or scenes where you&#39;re cutting the heart of a giant worm out, and it&#39;s all capped off by a dissatisfying, whimper of an ending.&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align:center;"><img style="max-height:450px;max-width:450px;" border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/JNt0D1x.jpg" alt="" /></p> <p style="text-align:left;">Fret not though! There&#39;s a DLC-styled extra campaign, titled Aftermath which chronicles what Cole and Baird did in Gears of War 3, while Marcus and Dom went on a mission to save Marcus&#39; father. While carrying over Judgment&#39;s slightly altered controls - which do a nice job of speeding up the action - the aesthetic that pleased the eyes in the main campaign, is absent. It&#39;s not a horrible thing though as it lends a much more grim atmosphere to Aftermath&#39;s story.&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align:left;">On that note, the events in Aftermath overshadow Judgments main campaign quite a bit. Paduk (one of the four main characters) makes a return in Aftermath so his story can be tied up, and the mystery behind his strange - and almost hostile - detachment from Baird as opposed to their friendly demeanor in Judgments campaign proves to be quite intriguing. Unfortunately, one of the four receives a very weak end to their story arc (once again, I won&#39;t go into detail) and left me with a really bad taste in my mouth long after I finished Aftermath&#39;s campaign.</p> <p style="text-align:left;">Gears of War: Judgment manages to carry on the series penchant for bloody, violent, fun, but too many other missteps are made in the process. There&#39;s plenty of content, and series fans should find some enjoyment as the combat and visuals are more refined than ever before, but I&#39;d recommend turning expectations down a notch or two. Judgment is by no means a bad game, it just proves to be a forgettable one. I give it a 7.75 out of 10.</p>Blog Post: A Bold Shifthttps://www.gameinformer.com/games/gears_of_war_judgment/b/user_reviews/archive/2013/04/25/a-bold-shift.aspxThu, 25 Apr 2013 21:37:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:2793870drmuffin1080<p>Gears of War has always been an amazing series. The perfect combination of an explosive campaign, unbeatable co-op, and tactical multiplayer has always been a favorite for fans of third person shooters. And anyone who&#39;s held a controller. However this is the first GoW with a new team. People can fly have helped before on past GoW, but this is their first solo game. If you have played past GoW, you will realize that People Can Fly aren&#39;t super creative geniuses. The multiplayer differs from past Gears games. In Team Deathmatch, COG vs. Locust is now COG vs. COG. I am a little disappointed by this. There is absolutely no need for that and I would have liked to customize my own Locust again. Although weapon customization is expanded, the new armor and weapon skins seem a little colorful and bright for a Gears game (especially rainbow). &nbsp;Character customization got even worse. There are less than half of the amount of characters than GoW 3 and I just use Marcus because of pre-ordering. A new feature in multiplayer is automatically dying. The down but not dead feature has been taken out, which really just takes off a bit of what made GoW, well, GoW. Although I did enjoy multiplayer, the frantic and tactical action from past Gears has been taken out for the &quot;Call of Duty&quot; style running randomly around the map that so many people love these days. Out of all the Team Deathmatch maps, there is only one I really enjoyed. However I&#39;m not surprised since there is only 4 maps. It seems like kind of a rip-off to me and the replay value goes down quickly. The AI in multiplayer also seemed like they got dumber. In Gears 3, Hardcore was what I usually played on. Now I play on Insane and it&#39;s not even a challenge. However, people with Live will probably playing Live (which I suggest). Judgement still features some good TD fun though, and is cool to play for a while. Now for OverRun. That is the one mode that I extremely enjoyed. It&#39;s COG vs. Locust, with the Locust trying to open the E-hole and the COG defending it. It is a blast. Playing as the COG is a challenge, and teams need to work together. Engineer can rebuild barriers and set up turrets, assault can give out ammo, medic can heal teammates, and scouts can throw beacons. It&#39;s awesome playing on co-op with a friend and I just love being all the Locust classes and destroying anything I touch. Survival, the new horde, just seems there to be there, but Gears fans will still be at home. The campaign is OKAY. If you want a game with a firefight in the first five seconds, Judgment&#39;s your game. There&#39;s a lot of action even if the difficulty has been taken down. I was surrounded by six Locust, even more wretches, and came out unscathed. One thing I enjoyed though was trying to get tree stars for every segment of a mission. Declassified missions are chances (kind of like Halo skulls) where you can choose to make your missions harder. It can increase the amount of stars you get and adds replay value. I really liked getting to choose if I wanted dark wretches to replace regular ones. It added some nice difficulty. The graphics are good, but I could mistake it for GoW 3. The sound is still awesome. The battlefield just seems to come alive in Gears games and this is no exception. Overall this is a good game that no Gears fan should pass up, even if they may be disappointed.</p>File: Gears of War Judgment Call To Armshttps://www.gameinformer.com/games/gears_of_war_judgment/m/gears_of_war_judgment_media/2758630.aspxFri, 19 Apr 2013 14:11:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:2758630Mike FutterGet a look at the second Gears of War Judgment DLC packFile: Gears of War Judgment Call To Armshttps://www.gameinformer.com/games/gears_of_war_judgment/m/gears_of_war_judgment_media/2758629.aspxFri, 19 Apr 2013 14:11:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:2758629Mike FutterGet a look at the second Gears of War Judgment DLC packFile: Gears of War Judgment Call To Armshttps://www.gameinformer.com/games/gears_of_war_judgment/m/gears_of_war_judgment_media/2758628.aspxFri, 19 Apr 2013 14:11:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:2758628Mike FutterGet a look at the second Gears of War Judgment DLC packFile: Gears of War Judgment Call To Armshttps://www.gameinformer.com/games/gears_of_war_judgment/m/gears_of_war_judgment_media/2758627.aspxFri, 19 Apr 2013 14:11:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:2758627Mike FutterGet a look at the second Gears of War Judgment DLC packFile: Gears of War Judgment Call To Armshttps://www.gameinformer.com/games/gears_of_war_judgment/m/gears_of_war_judgment_media/2758626.aspxFri, 19 Apr 2013 14:11:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:2758626Mike FutterGet a look at the second Gears of War Judgment DLC packFile: Gears of War Judgment Call To Armshttps://www.gameinformer.com/games/gears_of_war_judgment/m/gears_of_war_judgment_media/2758625.aspxFri, 19 Apr 2013 14:11:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:2758625Mike FutterGet a look at the second Gears of War Judgment DLC packFile: Gears of War Judgment Call To Armshttps://www.gameinformer.com/games/gears_of_war_judgment/m/gears_of_war_judgment_media/2758624.aspxFri, 19 Apr 2013 14:11:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:2758624Mike FutterGet a look at the second Gears of War Judgment DLC packFile: Gears of War Judgment Call To Armshttps://www.gameinformer.com/games/gears_of_war_judgment/m/gears_of_war_judgment_media/2758623.aspxFri, 19 Apr 2013 14:11:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:2758623Mike FutterGet a look at the second Gears of War Judgment DLC packWiki: Gears of War: Judgment Guideshttps://www.gameinformer.com/games/gears_of_war_judgment/w/guides/default.aspxTue, 09 Apr 2013 23:03:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:1873AnonymousGuides for Gears of War: Judgment